Transcript The Monster

Unit Seven
The Monster
Deems Taylor
Contents
A. Text one
I. Pre-reading:
(I). Warm-up questions
(II). Background information
II. While-reading: Text Analysis
(I) Structure analysis
(II) Comprehension questions
(III) Language points
(IV) Difficult sentences
III. Post-Reading:
(I) Grammatical items
(II) Translation Exercises
(III) Oral activities
(IV) Writing practice
B. Text two
（I）Questions for text comprehension
（II）Language points
I. Pre-reading:
Background information:
About the text:
This text first appeared as a radio talk,
entitled A Monster. Later it was published
with the title Of Men and Music in the United
States in 1937.
About the author:
Deems Taylor, American musician and critic
Richard Wagner:
German composer, born in Leipzig on 22 May 1813
and died in Venice on 13 February 1883. he did
more than any other composer to change music,
and indeed to change the art and thinking about
it. His works are hated as much as they are
worshipped, but no one denies their greatness.
II. While-reading: Text Analysis
(I) Structure analysis
Part I describe a man who seems to have rolled all
kinds of demerits into one, a real monster.
Part II clarifies who this monster really is, i.e. a
famous musician by the name of Richard Wagner.
Part III justify all the peculiar behaviors of Richard
Wagner. He, as “one of the world’s greatest
dramatists … a great thinker … one of the most
stupendous musical geniuses”, has every reason to be
a monster
Part I paragraph 1-9
1. Does the man’s appearance, described in the
first paragraph, give one any impression of
“grandeur”?
Words and expressions
Undersized:
too small or smaller than usual, especially
because of lack of growth.
Agony: very severe pain
the agony of arthritis (关节炎）
in agony
I was in agony. He groaned in agony.
a very sad, difficult, or unpleasant
experience
It was agony not knowing if she would live.
agony of
He was in agonies of remorse （悔恨）.
Questions
In what way was Wagner physically odd?
What are the further evidences of the
monster’s conceit?
What kinds of grammatical devices are used
to emphasize the extreme extent of his
peculiar conceit?
conceit：an attitude that shows you have too
high an opinion of your own abilities or
importance
synonym conceitedness
He was a monster of conceit.--- He was an
unusual person with excessive self-pride.
Monster: an imaginary or ancient creature
that is large, ugly, and frightening /
someone who is very cruel and evil /an
object, animal etc that is unusually large
音乐的天才
William Shakespeare
Hamlet, Prince of
Denmark (1600-1601)
Othello, the Moor of
Venice (1604)
King Lear (1605)
Macbeth ( 1606)
Beethoven
Plato
Maddeningly: very annoying
He moved carefully and maddeningly slowly.
Mania: a strong desire for something or
interest in something, especially one that
affects a lot of people at the same time.
癖好，狂热 mania for
a serious mental illness
Why did he always take himself as the centre of
his conversations?
Volubility: ( derogatory) the characteristic of
always being ready to produce a continuous
flow of words, or being talkative 滔滔不绝，
没完没了
Voluble: characterized by a ready and
continuous flow of words; fluent; talkative
Ted’s a voluble speaker at meetings; he
doesn’t give much chance to others to say
anything.
Questions
What kind of versatile man is he?
How does the writer describe him as an
emotional person?
out of sorts: feeling a little ill or upset; in a bad
temper
Louise went back to work feeling rather out of
sorts.
rave: talk wildly as if mad He raved all night in
his fever./ Father is raving against the
government again.
to talk in an angry, uncontrolled, or crazy way
rave at
He started raving at me.
Raving : crazy
Callous: not caring that other people are
suffering, unkind, without feelings无情冷酷
We were shocked at the callous disregard for
human life. a callous attitude
Shudder: shake uncontrollably from fear, cold,
or strong dislike
She shuddered at the sight of the dead body.
Questions
What is his attitude toward love?
Wagner and Cosima
Unscrupulous: behaving in an unfair or dishonest
way, having and showing no moral principles毫无顾
及，不择手段，不道德的
unscrupulous employers
Infidelity：disloyalty, unfaithfulness when
someone has sex with a person who is not their
wife, husband, or partner marital infidelity
Questions
Why do you think Wagner made so many enemies?
Burlesque： speech, acting, or writing in which
a serious subject is made to seem silly or an
unimportant subject is treated in a serious
way
He was still unsatisfied mocking him,
therefore he invited the critic to his house
and read him the libretto aloud in front of his
friends.
Part 2 paragraph 10
Why do you think the writer postpones the
presentation of the monster’s name till the
10th paragraph?
Has your attitude towards this monster
changed a little when you finally find out who
this monster is?
Testimony: a formal statement that sth. is true,
as made by a witness in a court of law. In his
testimony, he denied that the company had
ignored safety procedures.
be a testimony to/of something
Between the lines: hidden meanings
Some kinds of poetry make you read between
the lines.
Part III paragraph 11-13
How does the writer justify every piece of
evidence of the monster, which he has
presented previously?
Stupendous: surprisingly large or impressive
(magnificent) a stupendous achievement
Hold the stage: be performed, be the centre of
attention 继续上演，仍然卖座
We had only one hour to discuss the question
and Mr. Hones held the stage for most of it.
…when you listen to his music, all his debts seem
to be repaid and the heartaches he brought to
people seem to be relieved.
Compromise: to reach an agreement in which
everyone involved accepts less that what they
wanted at first
She admitted that she was unable to
compromise.
compromise with
His work-mates demanded that he never
compromise with the bosses.
What is the writer’s real intention of writing
this article?
What is your final conclusion about Richard
Wagner?
Post-Reading
Rhetorical Features
The repetitious use of the third person pronoun
he creates suspense in the reader’s mind. This is
one of the effective ways to hold the reader’s
attention and make him move on. To use the
terminology of functional linguistics and discourse
analysis, this use of he is anaphoric in nature. The
anaphoric use of he can be found in sentences such
as “I have a friend and he is working in New York”,
in which he refers back to “my friend”.